Dr. Robert McDonald is Lead Scientist for the Global Cities program at The Nature Conservancy.  He researches the impact and dependencies of cities on the natural world, and helps direct the science behind much of the Conservancy’s urban conservation work.  He holds a PhD in Ecology from Duke University and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, and a recent book, entitled Conservation For Cities. Prior to joining the Conservancy, he was a Smith Conservation Biology Fellow at Harvard University, studying the impact global urban growth will have on biodiversity and conservation.  He also taught landscape ecology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, helping architects and planners incorporate ecological principles into their projects. He recently led the Nature in the Urban Century Assessment, a global research effort done to estimate the potential impact of urbanization on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

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